Booker taps Georgia operative to manage Kentucky Senate campaign against Rand Paul

[Judi Lynn]

Source: McClatchy

BY DAVID CATANESE
UPDATED AUGUST 06, 2021 02:55 PM

WASHINGTON
Charles Booker has tapped a Georgia political operative deeply involved in that state’s political transformation to lead his 2022 U.S Senate campaign in Kentucky.

Bianca Keaton, who just recently served as chair of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party in Georgia, told McClatchy she accepted the role as Booker’s campaign manager after months of continuous conversations with the candidate that began in February.

“I was convinced of getting him to have someone else run his campaign. I hadn’t done it before, not to this scale. I wanted him to have the best of the best,” Keaton said in an interview. “I got to yes, Charles challenged me the same way I challenged him.”

Booker is currently considered the leading Democratic candidate to take on Republican Sen. Rand Paul next year. He formally launched his bid on July 1, a year following his narrow loss in the 2020 Democratic U.S. Senate primary to Amy McGrath.

Read more: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article253317143.html

[madville]

1. Wish them luck but KY will be a tough nut to crack

McConnell beat McGrath by 20 points last year. If Paul only wins by say 10 points that will be good progress though.

[ColinC]

2. Could Kentucky be the next Georgia??

Maybe?

[babylonsister]

3. Sure it could. We're all sick of their shit!

Most of us?!

[mountain grammy]

4. I hate to get my hopes up because personally, I think KY is rigged.

[questionseverything]

5. If they have paper ballots we could beat the fix

If we turn out the city

[Lonestarblue]

7. I agree with you. Kentucky uses ES&S voting machines--no paper backup.

I would like to see the federal voting rights bill also require all voting machines to have paper backup. ES&S equipment is the old Diebold, famous for the shenanigans in the 2004 election that gave Ohio to Bush after the Diebold CEO promised Ohio Republicans that he would see that Bush won. Diebold paid a $50 million fine.

That said, much of Kentucky is rural, Fox is the preferred news/propaganda outlet, hate radio is prevalent, education is poor, healthcare is poor outside the cities, and too many people are white supremacists who would never vote for a Democrat, especially a black one. Add in the anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion crowd and you have the major electorate of Kentucky.

[Duppers]

6. Here's a big problem...

In contrasting Kentucky's racial composition to Georgia's...

Kentucky...
According to most recent ACS, the racial composition of KY was:
86.95% White
10.32% Black/African American and other

Georgia...
According to 2019 US Census, GA's population was:
57.8% White + Hispanic White
39% African American and other

[Bayard]

8. He might have a shot

The biggest thing against him will be racial, except in Louisville, Lexington, and Bowling Green--basically the well-educated college towns. And most other voters here generally don't turn out much for non-presidential elections.

BTW--I think McGrath was much closer to McConnell, but his voting shenanigans are deeply entrenched. His popularity ratings remain in the 30's.